Sooo much pooping

[littleredsquirrel]

We picked up our six girls on Saturday but I'm suspiscious about Maisie. She's the smallest but the bossiest of the lot and will run across the run to give Florrie the Orpington a peck. I think she's a boy. I hope not since she's aso the prettiest of the lot and I really wanted a Lavendar Pekin. I think she's about 12 weeks old. How would I know if she's a cockerel? (will try to add a picture if I can work out how to do it!)

[littleredsquirrel]

Fingers crossed this works!

 

 

[Redwing]

She looks like a girl but older than 12 weeks

 

If she is def 12 weeks she could be a boy but she doesnt look very boyish..the comb is bigger than I'd expect on a girl but smaller than I'd expect on a boy

[littleredsquirrel]

She could be older Redwing. To be honest the people we got them from were pretty rubbish at telling us anything. I think the light sussex bantam they've given us is probably not a bantam (not that that really matters) and they couldn't tell me whether the cohin was bantam or full size - which as I understand (with my very limited chicken knowledge) it would be an enormous difference!

 

Oh I do hope she's a girl. How long would it be before I'd know for sure?

[Redwing]

Oh I do hope she's a girl. How long would it be before I'd know for sure?

 

Maybe a few weeks, it does look like a girl, I have one 12 weeks old and she has nowhere near that size headgear but like I say I do think yours is older

[jennydavies]

Ooooh - is this another Blanche/Raymond moment ???

Blanche's comb and wattles were small when we got her and she was about 22-24 weeks but five weeks later, she was most definately a boy. His comb and wattles grew very large in about three weeks and he had a different walk to a girl, he sort of "minced" Now he has been rehomed and is in charge of a flock of "ladies" he has really blossomed. We saw him today "strutting his stuff"

[Egluntyne]

Hmmmm ...

 

S/he has a far more elaborate tail than my three girl Pekins, aged 10 months. The comb is inconclusive but the wattles are quite impressive for 12 weeks.

 

Thee appears to be a bit of sweeping over of feathers in the second pic. I'd say 60/40 boy.

[littleredsquirrel]

No no no she needs to be a girl!

[jennydavies]

We know how you feel and sympathize with you totally, we were really hoping that Raymond was Blanche but...when he started crowing and trying to mate.... we were just pleased that we were able to rehome him with a flock of ladies, lucky fella

[Daphne]

And whilst we're doling out the good news - I'm afraid a cochin is most definitely one enormous large fowl In fact, in the UK (unlike other countries) we don't have bantam cochins - we call them pekins. So your blue cochin will be quite like a very very large pekin. The good news is that they are generally very docile so I would imagine your birds will be able to live together quite happily. In fact, your pekins are likely to be the most fiesty of the group - the orps are very docile too.

[jennydavies]

If She does turn out to be a boy would it be possible for you to return Him and get a swop for a girl

[tom123]

Sorry but that looks like a young boy

 

The comb and wattles are large even if they were 15/16 weeks old. Tail is very pronounced and there are some sweeping saddle feathers which are the give away.

 

Sorry

[Mollie333]

Hello littleredsquirrel,

I'm afraid that looks like a male!

i have owned 3 pekins, (only 2 now)

and 1 was in a cage with a cockerall, and the hen had a more rounder bunch of tail feathers, while the cockerall had more pointy feathers, like a sermana.

Here is my hen.

Here is a picture of a cockerall.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Guest

[Mollie333]

Sorry,

SERAMA*

 

Are you positive shes a lavender pekin? and not a Pekin x Serama or a young Serama?

[madchickenlady]

I would say a girl, but I would also say that she's not pure pekin. Far too upright and not nearly 'round' enough. Pekins carry their cushion higher than their head. Also, the tail feathers seem rather stiff. I have a gold partridge girl who had very developed head gear at 8 weeks, and has just started laying at 20 weeks. The other gold partridge I had was the same, very distinguished face furniture My silver partridge is only just growing her comb and wattles, despite being the same age. Pekin boys are very impressive comb wise from a very early age. At 12 weeks I would expect bigger, tbh.

[madchickenlady]

Actually, looking again, I have no idea if it's a boy or a girl! All I know for sure is that there is something else mixed in there with pekin.....

[Lewis]

The neck feathers are round but the wattles + tail look a bit boy'ish for 12 weeks?

[Chook n Boo Mum]

My MF boy Berry showed few significant signs of being a boy until he was quite old.........he had the comb but no saddle feathers until he was older than 12 weeks from memory.......even the breeder had difficulty sexing him at that stage.........his "litter brother" had all the saddle and no comb at the same age

 

Be prepared for the breeder to say that Maisie will be culled if you return her for another hen......mine did so I found Berry another home Berry was one of a collection of expensive mistakes last summer

 

Here he is in all his glory.........(click on the pic, it's a slideshow)

 

And here's his sister Holly at the same age.......

 

She's now a broody banshee with 6 little BtB under her skirts

 

I hope you get him/her sorted soon

 

Sha x

[littleredsquirrel]

Thanks for your views everyone. I will post another picture in a few days and see whether there have been any changes. I have no idea but (s)he's lovely. In fact although I have ended up with a bunch of girls completely different to those I set out to collect (went out for 5 pekin bantams!), they are all lovely and getting on really well together.

I should have mentioned that we did see Maisie's mum and apparently she was marked as a boy from a very early age due to the size of her comb yet when we saw her she was sitting on eggs! She may well not be pure pekin I just took their word for it!!

 

I had them all on a girl or return basis and so yes I could probably swap Maise out if in a few weeks she turns out to be a boy but she was the only lavendar pekin they had. I think we'd probably just return her though since I'm a little conerned about space given that the "Cochin" is likely to be a big girl. They said she was a bantam but I'd read that we don't have cochin bantams in the UK and so suspect that she's likely to be BIG (if she even is a cochin - maybe I'd better get a picture of her too!). At the moment she's about the size of the black Orpington but I don't know for sure exactly how old either of them are. She's certainly very round and feathery

 

If Maisie is really Malcolm would she be a problem to keep? The noise probably wouldn't be too much of an issue since we have eleven acres of woodland and so we could keep the chicken further away from the nieghbours, but are cockerels ok with small children? My initial feeling is that we'd probably be better off returning her if she's a boy since I really wanted the chickens closer to the house.

 

Suspecting that I probably should have had birds from a breeder who knew a bit more about chickens but they were a bargain (£5 each) and 2 minutes down the lane so very convenient to collect!

[littleredsquirrel]

Oh we'd definitely not return her if she'd be culled! I'm very attached to them all already. We'd have to find her/him a new home if that was the case.

 

How do you go about finding homes for cockerels?!

[jennydavies]

I can only tell you about my experience with Blanche/Raymond, he was the only one out of our four that pecked me really hard and drew blood twice, all our girls really like being picked up and petted but as I went to pick Raymond up for a cuddle he would swivel his head and peck really hard. I have seen coqs chase people and try to peck, I don't know about trusting them with kids, but others on the forum who have coqs may have really friendly ones We rehomed Raymond with our neighbour who has a huge flock.

[littleredsquirrel]

Well if that's the case jenny then we'd definitely return her if she's a boy . We've had them for pets really. I struggled to get my two year old out of the run on Monday. He was in there with them for most of the day

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Berry was a sweetie, but I don't have such small children..........Yellow Legs my Lt Sussex cockerel was also rehomed as he really was a noisy beast, & he had started to assert his authority as it were ....he was big enough to jump up onto my shoulder from a standing start when he left at 6 months & that freaked me slightly as all the kiddies round here are smaller than me & when "manly strength" came into the equation I could imagine he inflicting damage, whether intentional or not

 

I don't know what a Pekin boy in an adult situation would be capable of, though I think I'd err on the side of caution while your littl'un is so small.................good luck with your decisions

 

Sha x

[madchickenlady]

Some cockerels can be very placid, but some can be monsters. Most will be loud, and pekins have a very shrill crow. I would love to have a boy, but my suburban garden is just not the place (sadly). I hope Maisie turns out to be a girl

[Lewis]

I think most pekin cockerels I've seen tend not to be too agressive, but a couple have little man syndrome

 

Have a look at

to hear what they sound like!